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_____While waiting my turn for my name to be called at one of my recent appointments, a lady walked by wearing my mama’s signature fragrance and I got a good whiff of a precious memory. It was all I could do to not follow her down the hall sniffing after her, but then that would just be too weird and security would more than likely be called to haul me away! But oh what a moment in time that was. Truth be told, I didn’t even know they still made “Woman” by Jovan since it has been 29 years come this year’s Father’s Day that mama last squirted some at all the appropriate pulse points any belle worth her grits knows is proper and lady-like. Even as she languished in Intensive Care at Glenwood, she liked having a little of her perfume dabbled behind her ears after her sponge bath. After she passed away, I kept her half-used bottle of Woman on my mirrored perfume tray that sits on my boudoir’s dresser so that every now and then I can spritz a little into the air, think of Mama and wistfully smile.
_____Though allergic to most fragrances, there are a few that I can tolerate fairly well. Like the Chanel No. 5 Daddy gave me for Valentine’s Day when I was about nine. Now what child gets a gift of Chanel No. 5 at such a young age? Mama had been in New York on Merrill Lynch business that year and with my brother and sister having plans of their own, I was Daddy’s date for the evening. Twas a wonderful Valentine’s Day dinner at the fancy Embers restaurant wearing my favorite Sunday dress eating fried shrimp and all the grownup fixins. Daddy gave me the sweetest card he had picked out and signed himself “Love Daddy”. Mama usually picked out the parental Valentine’s card and signed it for the both of them. I still have that little card tucked away in my hat box of memories I keep on the top shelf of my closet. Daddy then presented me with a gift wrapped present and imagine my surprise when tearing open the wrapping paper I find a bottle of Chanel No. 5. Though the fragrance was much too strong for a child so young as I, that bottle sat on my vanity for years long after I had become a full-grown woman.
_____My siblings and I accidentally discovered that each of our signature fragrances was Obsession. None of the three of us had ever realized that, but when we were lined up together at Daddy’s wake/visitation, we realized we smelled alike! It’s kind of a heady fragrance not to mention a little expensive – even when purchased from Amazon. And so it has come to be that I reserve Obsession to be worn at special family occasions with my brother and sister like birthday parties, Christmas and Thanksgiving gatherings, family reunions and the like.
_____Some fragrances I’m simply allergic to. A trip into the perfumery at the outlet mall in Foley, Alabama has my nose dripping, my eyes watering and a fit of “sneezures” commencing that soon send me running out the door. And it doesn’t matter how cheap or expensive the cologne or perfume, when I’m allergic, I’m allergic! I remember standing next to a tenor in the Edgewood choir who wore enough Stetson that had my throat closing up from the Doxology to the Just As I Am. Whoof!
_____And there was a lady lawyer friend who wore an expensive perfume she could only find at Dillard’s. It was aptly called “Galore” for it was as though she bathed in it. The girls at the courthouse giggled when she would come a'callin to tend to legal matters for long after she left the aroma of her perfume lingered.
_____In John 12:3, we read of Mary taking an expensive perfume and pouring it on Jesus’ feet and wiping them with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. Oh my goodness! What a beautiful act of love towards Jesus. Mary took her best, most expensive, perfume and poured it out over Jesus to anoint Him. She saw something so beautiful in Jesus and wanted to express her love for Him.
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